Cell: a new therapeutic method brought by large-scale cell composition analysis of breast cancer

April 28, 2019 / BIOON / - researchers from the University of Zurich and IBM research investigated the different components of cancer cells and immune cells in more than 100 breast tumors They found that aggressive tumors are usually controlled by a single type of tumor cell If some immune cells also exist, immunotherapy for a specific population of breast cancer patients may be successful Source: more than 1.7 million women around the world are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and about 500000 people die of breast cancer In the fight against breast cancer, researchers are exploring new therapies aimed at targeting cancer cells more precisely and activating tumor related immune systems So far, however, little has been known about the types of cancer cells and immune cells present in tumors and how they differ from patient to patient Johanna Wagner of the University of Zurich, in collaboration with Marianna rapsomaniki of IBM research and patients' tumor bank of hope, hopes to use large-scale cell counting to detect millions of cancer cells and immune cells in 140 patients as the basis of tumor and immune cell mapping "With this technique, we can analyze the diversity of cancer cells very precisely and describe how many different types of tumor cells exist in the tumor." Wagner, a doctoral student, explained that his work was done under the supervision of his doctoral supervisor, Bernd bodenmiller At the same time, they analyzed tumor related macrophages and T cells in the immune system, which can attack tumors but also support them If the activated immune system attacks successfully, breast cancer cells will be destroyed But if nearby immune cells are inactivated, breast cancer cells can survive the attack The researchers found that previous assumptions that tumor cells are more diverse in malignancies were false In most cases, the more aggressive tumors are controlled by a single type of tumor cell, which usually shows a high degree of mutation "The cell group Chengdu of each tumor we observed is unique, and the cell group Chengdu of each patient is different That's probably one of the reasons why we're so hard to treat breast cancer, "Wagner said At the same time, scientists have also found the similarity of tumor related immune system between malignant tumors In a group of breast cancer patients, they found a large number of inactive immune cells, which were successfully activated by immunotherapy, so as to fight against lung cancer and skin cancer This includes patients who were previously considered unsuitable for immunotherapy for breast cancer Therefore, the comprehensive analysis of tumor cells and immune cells can provide a good foundation for accurate medical treatment "Our results suggest that immunotherapy may be effective for breast cancer We will do further research on this, and if successful, we will extend them to clinical trials " Professor bodenmiller explained Reference: Johanna Wagner et al, a single cell Atlas of the tumor and immune ecosystem of human breast cancer, cell (2019) Doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.005